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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has many advantages for treating depression. Among them, the fact that it's easy to standardise, it's intuitive and it can deliver results relatively quickly (think weeks, not years as some other therapies demand). For many people with depression, it's also far more acceptable than the prospect of taking mind-altering drugs. But now the bad news: CBT's efficacy seems to be declining. That's the suggestion of a new meta-analysis that's looked at outcome data from 70 studies published between 1977 and 2014 and involving more than 2,426 people diagnosed with depression (uni polar depression, not bipolar). Across studies, 31 per cent of the participants were male; the average age of participants was 41. To allow comparison over time, Tom Johnsen and Oddgeir Friborg chose to focus only on studies that used the Beck Depression Inventory or the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale – two popular measures that involve the patient or ...

Paola Palmiotto – An Evolution of The Father Complex A complex is „a set of representations, thoughts, memories, partly or totally unconscious, with a strong emotional charge” (Galimberti, 1992), which limits the freedom of the ego. A kind of black hole that absorbs energy. The film „Departures”  (Okuribito in Japanese) by Yojiro Takita (2008 Oscar for best foreign film) is a fine example of how it can evolve fatherly complex. I’m citing excerpts from the film, selected and arranged by theme. Daigo, the protagonist, plays cello in an orchestra in Tokyo. The orchestra is disbanded and he is forced to rethink the choices of his life. He decides to stop playing and to move to his home town to the house inherited from his mother who died two years ago.  The wound „My mother raised me completely alone,” says Daigo. „My father is nothing but a worm. He ran a small cafe but then fled with the maid and disappeared, an absent father.” And when someone asks him, “who kn...

Published on The Political Studies Association (PSA) ( http://www.psa.ac.uk ) Home > Feminism: A fourth wave? Feminism: A fourth wave? [1] The internet has emerged as an increasingly important space for feminist activists. Are we witnessing a shift from third- to fourth-wave feminism? Ealasaid Munro examines the history of feminism and looks at what contemporary developments might mean for feminist politics. Earlier this year, commentator Suzanne Moore found herself at the centre of a media storm. The reason: she had written a piece in the New Statesman arguing that women feel guilty if they do not conform to a socially sanctioned, ideal body shape. So far, so uncontroversial, but unfortunately, Moore’s choice of imagery was, at best, careless: she likened this perfect body to that of a ‘Brazilian transsexual’. The remark was considered offensive for a number of reasons: it suggested that trans-women could not be considered women, whilst callously mocking...